Our final stop in Greece was the one I was most looking forward to. Known for its spectacular sunset views and serene beauty, I’ve been aching to go to Santorini for years.

Sailing up we saw the most breathtaking cities perched on the edge of the cliffs.

Shortly after, we dropped anchor so that we could all take a jump off these ruins. After watching a couple of my friends go, I couldn’t resist anymore so I swam over, climbed up, and leapt off. It was thrilling. So thrilling that I did it again! One of my friends caught a photo of my plunge but I haven’t been able to get it from him so I’ll have to substitute with this one I snapped of strangers.

When we’d had our fill, we continued sailing until we docked at a small port without much nearby. I was a little disappointed because we’d been right in the middle of things at every other port, and I had such high hopes for Santorini. But I was pacified with a delicious dinner perched on the edge of a cliff with Greek music.

With nothing else to do, we headed back to the boat early and played a very serious backgammon tournament.

The next morning we woke up early and rented cars so that we could see everything the island had to offer. We started by grabbing a gyro and then headed to check out some of the views.

The island off to the right there is actually the center of the collapsed volcano. The rest of the island makes a crescent around it, creating a spectacular panoramic view.

Next we scooted off to the Akrotiri ruins. Similar to the city of Pompeii, the settlement was destroyed by an eruption from Theran around 1627 BCE and buried in volcanic ash, preserving it. It’s been excavated since the 1960s and honestly, it wasn’t that interesting to me.

Without any explanation of what we were looking at, we finished up there pretty quickly, leaving us a whole afternoon to kill. Fortunately, there was no shortage of beach bars to occupy us.

We perched up at the pool for the afternoon and the rest of the day melted away.

Before we knew it, it was time to go catch the sunset. I finally got to see the quintessential Santorini views I’d been craving. I really don’t think it gets more beautiful than this!

And it only gets more spectacular as the sun goes down… which explains the popularity.

Watching the sun set here was the perfect finale to our trip. We said our sad goodbyes and went our separate ways- me to the airport for a verrry long trip home (made even longer by an Air France snafu that they made no apology for… but let’s not get into THAT story!) It was a lovely trip and I will never forget it.